My Casa Bella

COME IN THE EVENING, OR COME IN THE MORNING;

COME WHEN YOU'RE LOOK'D FOR,

OR COME WITHOUT WARNING.

KISSES AND WELCOME YOU'LL FIND BEFORE YOU,

AND THE OFTENER YOU COME HERE

THE MORE I'LL ADORE YOU!

-Thomas Osbourne Davis



Welcome To My Casa Bella

My Casa Bella- means-my beautiful home- but it can mean so many other things. How you make your home a home. The sounds of children or pets playing. The aroma of scones in the oven or a lilac candle burning. The flowers blooming in your garden. The home grown vegetables ready to be picked. Grandma's quilt at the foot of the bed. A fire to curl up to with a good book. Or just a family spending time together with love, laughter and a good time.





















Monday, July 1, 2013

Sewing Craze!

Having a ton of fun sewing again!!!
It's funny, I LOVE to sew, I love to put fabrics together and try to coordinate with ribbons and buttons,
BUT
I have to get myself excited for it.
 I have to get motivated.
I planned this a few weeks ago, the first week of July will be my sewing week.
So yesterday I sewed three bags, the one above is for
Moi!
This one below is for a friend, who bought the fabrics and asked me to put it together
{she says she's afraid to use it now, it's too pretty}
And this other one below is an order from a friend as well, many of you have seen this pattern, it's one of my top
sellers
So busy with those and once I get started I can't stop.
I have no sense of balance what so ever!
I can't get motivated,
then when I finally do, I will sew 3-5 hours straight, only stopping for a potty break, and I may remember to eat or drink
something to stay hydrated and energized.
I need help!
 
So that was yesterday,
today I've been measuring, and re-measuring then ironing, ironing and more ironing,
then I started cutting,
these
What am I making with these?
HMMMMM
Well, time will tell, I mean I know what I'm doing with them, but
you'll have to wait for my next post.
The far left one, I'm trying to decide the green fringe or orange fringe?
Pretty aren't they?
Until next time.......
{PS I'll give you a hint, it's not handbags}


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Landscaping Before & After's

I thought when I put this blog together I'd be posting quite regularly but no, that hasn't happened since we put our last home on the market.
Life has become insane since all that happened.
Projects are never ending, you finish one and there is another waiting for you.
Plus, work & a life take over as well.
But I am now finally posting our Landscaping project.
When we bought this place it certainly wasn't for it's curb appeal
or
how beautiful it looked on the inside,
no way!
It was price, location and the possibilities.
Our front yard was awful,
whoever lived here look like they tried to do something
but because it being an end unit and on a slope
the yard was washing away.
You couldn't plant anything.
They had holly bushes in front but the roots were exposed since the soil was going down the hill,
So it required building a retaining wall and adding soil.
After the OK from the HOA committee,
the project began and Hubby was the one doing all the work since it would of cost us about $4,000 when it was said and done.
Yeah, sure we'll pull out $4,000 from........
 
Building the wall was stressing him out especially since he NEVER built a retaining wall before.
The internet is a great source of information!!!
After building this we didn't need to buy soil, thank goodness, we had enough after the wall went up and walkway went in, so $$$ saved here.
(Below- before adding mulch)
 
 
After:
We weeded and added mulch and planted a spreading plant, ordered it and came in a root bound ball so still waiting to see if it'll do anything, and we planted impatients as well.
So after moving the soil around, replanting the holly bushes which was a bit stressful because the rules on replanting those were specific and if you did one thing wrong they'd die. Happy to say they are healthy and happy.
Here he's now putting in a walkway to the gate. 
He even added steps, again the internet was a great help, this was a bit of a tough one but he figured it out and it turned out great. 
Here is the after, below, after putting in pea gravel
 
 
 
 
(before adding mulch) 
 
(after adding mulch) 
 
(Holly Bushes doing well)
 
This part is always been hard for me, PATIENCE, waiting on the plants to fill in, controlling myself by not buying so many plants since it does get expensive, but I do go to the nurseries and watch out for sales on perennials.
 
 
We were having issues with some neighbors walking through our front yard to cut across to the main entrance, after putting in the wall and landscaping it finally stopped, even after we landscaped one neighbor insisted on still walking through but I haven't seen him do it, maybe because heard me scolding a young boy who thought he was superman and tried to jump from our wall over our flowers and instead he landed on my flowers as he was running down the slope, I must of looked like a crazy person running out my front door, I'm sure others heard me but I didn't care.
Well, the boy never did that again, in fact I haven't seen him and his friend playing out there since then.
Oh well, we're happy with the results and can't wait to see the flowers fill in and can't wait to add more.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Spring Love


Yesterday had been a very busy day for me, I worked in the morning,
got a few groceries,
came home, put things away, finished some of my work online
then went outside and did some trimming, which I am now paying for a little...:)
then decided to go ahead and do some measuring, ironing, sewing and hanging curtains.
I have to motivate myself to get sewing, I LOVE to sew but it is time consuming, the measuring, remeasuring, cutting, pinning, ironing, remeasure again, etc. but once I get started then I can't stop.
(got this fabric through fabric.com it's an Ikat look and I LOVE the colors, design and the feel of the fabric, it hangs nicely)
Above is my new window treatment for Spring/Summer look.
I even changed out pillows,
(the butterfly pillows are my favorite, it captures the colors perfectly in our living room)
(I didn't even realize the pictures hanging above our sofa have blues in them until AFTER I purchased the fabric, now it stands out)
 I'm noticing as I take pictures and load them up and get a better  look at the living space and the walls, those pictures look small up there, it doesn't seem that way when I'm standing in the room but it does here, I'll need to change that..:) time to go shopping again!
 
I change our rooms around every season, well, in the Fall it'll go to deep oranges, and now with Spring here and Summer approaching these colors just say Warmer weather is coming and we really like how it turned out, Hubby is loving it, of course after I put the pillows down he sat right on them!
I freaked, he said, "oh great this is going to be fun now"
Oops, don't want to make him sit on the floor BUT no sitting
ON THE PILLOWS Please.
I also lightened up the Dining space by just changing out the curtains
(they're a sheer with an embroidered design on them) 
 
The room feels fresh and bright now
I'm all ready for the warm weather to come and ready to open those doors and let fresh air come in.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Hibernation Almost Over

OK, so I know I said I was going to post more pictures of our home make over, before and afters,
BUT
We ended up taking a winter break!
We've done so much work, so much painting, so much demolishing, so much of so many things,
we took a break.
We have a list, you know those little projects that seem such a pain to start because they're tedious ones, but they need to be done,
DH wanted a break and I don't blame him,
he did so much himself,
(we're getting old)
so now winter is slowly behind us, trees are budding, bulbs are coming up
and we have A LOT of yard work to do as well.
So the list is growing
and when this month is over, we'll get back to it.
 
(fabric.com)
 
I ordered fabric for our living room windows, getting ready for summer colors.
Looking through plant catalogs and websites getting ideas for our small front yard, which we have some major things to do to.
So, although they're calling for snow tonight into tomorrow, Spring is just around the corner and our list is getting bigger.
Here we go again!
 


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Will Be Posting Kitchen


So much going on I haven't had a chance to play on my blog and to post updated pictures of our home. 
I'm still in the process of getting pictures together, it's so time consuming.
Trying to organize the kitchen before and after's still so hopefully will have that done real soon.